University of Connecticut faculty and students picketed outside the Homer Babbidge Library on Tuesday to protest recently announced budget cuts.
The protest was organized by UConn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The picketers expressed particular concern about the lack of transparency from the university and how the cuts focused on academic and graduate programs.
“Beyond the question of whether or not these cuts need to happen at all, the idea that they would be targeted and pointed at academics is what is devastating, because if we are not fully funding our academic programs, what are we doing?” said Sam Sommers, an assistant professor in residence in the English Department.
According to a virtual town hall held on Wednesday to answer questions about the cuts, all 2-Ledger budgets are to be cut 15% over the next five years. Both the town hall and the picketers indicated that these cuts will lead to larger class sizes and more online classes.
“Huge classes, although they work for some fields, they don’t work for every field, and you know, students don’t always learn that well in a lecture class with 500 people. I would like more understanding of the uniqueness of what makes UConn UConn, and it is the interactions with the students and the closeness of the community,” said Martha Cutter, the interim director of American Studies and a professor in English and Africana Studies.
Picketers also expressed concerns about the effect that cuts would have on graduate programs.
There’s already an effect for students with either classes getting canceled or conference funding going away or work study jobs not being funded,
Sam Sommers, assistant professor in residence in the English Department.
“In our department meeting, we really felt as a group that these cuts would represent the end of education at UConn as we know it. It would eradicate a large number of graduate programs. It’s a very imprecise kind of cutting and it’s cutting where there is no fat to trim,” Melanie Newport, an associate professor of history at the Hartford campus, said at the protest.
Eric Berg, a doctorate student in the Philosophy department and the sergeant of arms for the Graduate Student Union, said that communication to graduate students had been lacking and they were concerned about how the cuts would be affecting their work and schooling.
“First, we heard about it through other channels, so there hasn’t been a lot of communication to graduate students about this, and as we know, with cuts that affect labor, a lot of that rolls downhill and graduate students are the ones that are going to pick up a lot of the extra slack,” Berg said at the rally.
Multiple picketers also brought up a lack of transparency from UConn about how and when the cuts would be implemented.
“There’s a real lack of clarity from the administration about what these cuts are, who they’re going to affect, and the size of them seems like it’s hard to envision how this isn’t going to affect our ability to teach students in really important ways,” said Andrew Bush, a professor in the Earth Sciences department.
Sommers and others at the rally said that funds had been removed from department accounts overnight without any clear warning.
“There’s already an effect for students with either classes getting canceled or conference funding going away or work study jobs not being funded,” Sommers said.
The university cannot absorb 15% budget cuts over five years and not be eviscerated and unable to meet its mission as a flagship university, as a world-class university, as an R1 university.
Jeffrey Ogbar, president of UConn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors
According to UConn president Radenka Maric in the virtual town hall, the cuts were still in an unpredictable stage, and the university will be communicating more to departments in the future.
Mary Beth Allen, an assistant professor of French & Francophone studies, said that the cuts have already had an effect on department morale.
“I can already hear that people are worried about their jobs, and people are worried about the ways this will transform our work and our mission, and that we won’t be able to achieve our mission,” Allen said.
A flyer handed out at the demonstration also called for UConn to stop employing Huron Consulting, a consulting firm that has been employed by schools such as the University of Wisconsin and the University of New Hampshire. Both of these schools experienced layoffs as a result of budget cuts.
“This can affect our standing as a tier-one research institute. This can affect a lot of things and it doesn’t make sense to me that we’re trying to cut the budget and spending $1.5 million already on Huron,” said Shana Bartlett, an administrative program assistant in the Humanities department who attended the protest.
Jeffrey Ogbar, the president of UConn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors and a professor of history, said that the rally was meant to be informational about how destructive the budget cuts would be.
“The university cannot absorb 15% budget cuts over five years and not be eviscerated and unable to meet its mission as a flagship university, as a world-class university, as an R1 university. It will undermine and gut our graduate programs in particular and eliminate our ability to teach undergraduate students by the thousands,” Ogbar said.
Ogbar also emphasized that getting a healthier budget will “solely be at the behest of lawmakers.”
“I’m perhaps foolishly optimistic that if lawmakers are made fully aware of how destructive these budget cuts will be, they will act accordingly and responsibly to maintain the integrity of the flagship university in the state of Connecticut,” Ogbar said.